"It is such a relief to see that so many ... paragons of journalism are thinking not only about Britney [Spear's] best interests and the needs of their readers and viewers, but also about the long-term interests of American society, and also the world at large. If our best institutions of journalism started to cynically sell human suffering as entertainment, reasoning that people had proved with their pocketbooks that's what they wanted, what a fix we'd be in! It would be like in ancient Rome when people enjoyed seeing social outcasts -- and the occasional fallen celebrity -- thrown to the lions."
Rochester-based journalist DOUG MCGILL, "The McGill Report," Jan. 16.
